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By Ray Hickson

Emerging apprentice Tyler Schiller has his sights set on ‘stablemate’ Tom Sherry’s Champion Apprentice title this season and he says taking advantage of opportunities on promising horses like Dragonstone will be key to his chances.

Apprentice Tyler Schiller (Pic: Bradley Photos)

The 23-year-old’s title ambitions have gathered pace of late with six city winners in the past three weeks including a treble at Canterbury last Friday night and he’s excited to retain the mount on Dragonstone in the Cellarbrations Handicap (1100m) at Randwick on Saturday.

Schiller is the latest from the Mark Newnham apprentice factory to make the move to the city and that means there’s a plan to etch his name, alongside Sherry (whose apprenticeship is due to finish in March) and Robbie Dolan, on the premiership honour roll in the future.

“I was pleasantly surprised that Mark kept me on him,’’ he said.

“He’s a nice horse and I think he will take me places if I can stick with him.

“I’m definitely going out to win it this year. I know Tom his getting some momentum and riding for Mr Waller a bit but I will be doing my best to keep him at bay.”

Dragonstone has won two of his four starts and on the back of his impressive first-up win at Kembla Grange was $2.80 favourite with TAB to go back-to-back.

It looked a straightforward win to the eye, despite rain falling during the race making conditions interesting for the horses, but Schiller said the performance had added merit as the three-year-old was underdone.

He saw evidence in the days after that the effort took a toll but has also seen him take benefit from it.

“It was a tough run, a tough win, first-up, they ran quick time on a soft track,’’ he said.

“He felt the run a little bit but he’s back bright and happy at the moment.

“Mark said he was pretty much putting him in there for a second trial and if he wins it was a bonus. For him to win first-up off one trial it was a massive effort.

“He’s a beautiful horse in the stable, he’s pretty unassuming when you look at him. He surprised us from an early stage but he’s a pretty nice horse.”

With that in mind, it speaks to Dragonstone’s quality that he could run 32.39 for his last 600m (Punter’s Intelligence), quicker by more than a length than any of his rivals.

Schiller said he’s not too concerned about drawing one from the outside considering it’s basically a straight run to the home turn at the 1100m start but would still prefer an economical run.

“Hopefully he jumps as well as he did at Kembla and he can slot in midfield or better,’’ he said.

“I’d say he will be right in the finish again because he has such a good turn of foot.”

The Anthony Cummings-trained Lease provides Schiller with his first ride at Group level in the Group 2 $750,000 The Agency Villiers Stakes (1600m).

Lease ($71) has had a busy preparation which started in a maiden in September but has proven to be a competitive type throughout the spring with a third in the Bondi Stakes, fourth in the Group 3 Spring Stakes and last start second at Rosehill.

Dragonstone wins at Kembla Grange on November 20

“He has the light weight and a decent draw midfield,’’ Schiller said.

“Hopefully he can roll forward and end up in the first half of the field. If he’s good enough he might be able to tough it out for a nice placing or better.”

The apprentice is a bit more familiar with his Midway Handicap (1600m) ride Remus after they paired up for a closing first-up second at Hawkesbury on November 18.

“He takes a bit to get into his gears, he hits a flat spot and gets a bit lazy,’’ he said.

“He hit the line really strong late at Hawkesbury and I think the wide gate isn’t a drama. He’ll slot in worse than midfield and be hitting the line.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Villiers Stakes meeting at Randwick